Wrapped Bales

After my morning millet & Inka I took a long walk under the sun & restless clouds. Maybe I was feeling a bit restless myself & thinking that a good long walk would help me get focused upon my return to my studio. I liked to see the tractors at work & productive couples planting their fields. I have been mystified by these huge blue wrapped bales- which I presume are hay- but I am still not sure why they wrap them so tightly in blue plastic. I had this image in my head- of placing one in the Y- Gallery in Tartu- but then I tried to lift one just to see how much it weighed & it was extremely heavy and would need a tractor to drive it to Tartu. It would be fun if I could drive it there by tractor, but the dilemma would be to get it down the stairs. There is also the point to stay focused, which is that I am here in Mooste, as a way to experience isolation and to express it through my art. Perhaps the things that catch my eye- are relevant, as in they are different from what I am accustomed to seeing, but they alone do not embody isolation. So what does? I have been eying the white bricks that fill many windows of old buildings, thinking about how the Russians had no interest to protect the heritage of what was here before them. They made it their duty to treat all buildings with the same regard as a way of instilling their socialist idea of “equality”. Consequently, many of the beautiful old farmhouses that were part of the “Collective Farm” were turned into storage units & had their windows sealed up with these white uniform bricks. I can’t help but to draw the parallel to Marcel living inside of a prison that has no windows, & there is no concern with maintaining the prisoners relationship with their environment or with nature. I had this idea for an installation that I would fill up all the windows of the gallery with layered white bricks. However, because of the off-set nature of brick laying I would need to borrow a brick cutter/ grinder from someone or to find enough abandoned bricks of all sizes that I could arrange to fit the windows. I think that I will do it for the largest room in the gallery, which has three windows to fill.

I also got to go on a drive with Sara this afternoon, who invited me to come along & scout out places to paint in the area. We headed in the direction of Resina & drove down the back roads. At a crossroads we saw this beautiful old church looking building with a nest in the chimney- I also saw one of the large birds-, which I believe was a stork. We ended up heading to the nearby town of Polva to do a little shopping at the discount store. I think the discount is made possible because they do not pay anybody to take the products out of their original shipping boxes, they are just shelved there- with one side conveniently cut out for the consumers to grab what they need. The fruit & vegetables seemed fresh and the only intimidating factor was that you had to bag and weigh everything on a certain scale, which required you to type in the product code and price per kilo, which operated in Estonian. Fortunately, the lady at the counter also had a scale. Grocery Bags are never provided. You have to pay an additional charge for a plastic bag if you forgot to bring one of your own. (This is true for non-discount stores as well).
I believe that I bought enough discounted food to get me through the month- despite the fact that I managed to burn my cauliflower this evening (which was going to contribute to next weeks soup supply)- while I was on Skype with my mom & brother again. I think that I have to make a little rule for myself- turn off the stove if you leave the kitchen! Apparently Marcel caught some bug going around his unit. I guess that is one of the hardships of living in such tight quarters- everyone is sharing the same air, which circulates through the vents from one cell to the next. So if one guy gets sick, often everyone on the unit will catch the same bug. I told him to drink lots of water & to take hot showers frequently. It's awful to get sick, no less in prison. I can hardly complain about burnt cauliflower...
Estonian word of the day: "Kondima" meaning Walk.